It’s no secret, at least in my world, that I haven’t been terribly happy in my job for a while. It’s not really the job itself or the people who I work closely with, but more the company I work for. I’m not much of a ranter anymore and aside from my cell phone post, I don’t do a lot of ranting on here. But, this is a rant with a happy ending so here it goes.

Like most companies, a few years ago when the recession hit, it hit hard and the company I work at starting laying people off. I was one of the lucky ones who remained. Although I was grateful to still have a job, that job now demanded more out of me and everyone else left. When I was first hired at the company six years ago, there were six people in our division; then, there were two. You do the math. The final person in our division to be laid off was the accounting girl – those duties were then placed (read: thrown) in my lap. Let me stop here to let you know that I have ab-so-lute-ly no accounting background. So on top of the other jobs I was doing, I also then had to learn an entirely new job, one I wasn’t entirely excited about. That was almost three years ago, and I am happy to say that I have since made that job my own. We finally hired a third person after a year of the two of us struggling to get the work of six people done. Thank goodness.

Now, the problem with the company, is that they have absolutely no idea how to treat their staff or motivate them. Every single month my division is told that we are not making money, that in fact, we’re losing money. Now, we’re not stupid, we know full well that if we were losing money month after month after month like they say we are, we would have been closed down a long time ago. We know this isn’t true, that it’s management’s way of “motivating” us to do better, work harder, make more money. What they don’t seem to realize, obviously, is that every time they tell us this, we want to pack up our stuff and go home. I mean, we’ve been working our behinds off and what is our thanks? Being told we’re not doing a good enough job – every month. To say the morale in our office is low is an understatement.

Another thing that really doesn’t help matters is the fact there was a wage/salary freeze a few years ago. I still remember opening that email. I get that there was a recession, I understand that things were going to change and that raises were going to be out of the question, for a while. I’m not completely ignorant of the facts. What does irk me is seeing managers and VP’s and the President rolling into the parking lot in their Audies, Porsches and Bentley – yes, our President thought it would be a good idea to show up to the office in his Bentley.

Oh, we did eventually get a raise. It was last year. I remember going into the VP’s office to get some things signed and he had me shut the door. He then handed me an envelope and told me to fill “it” out, and get it back to him the next week. It was a review. I had to fill in a three page questionnaire about my work to date. Actually, it was about my work since my last review which was funny considering I had never had a formal review up to that point. Well, I took it home, filled it out as best as I could (I think they Googled “Performance Reviews” and printed out the first one they found – most of the questions pertained to managers, which I am not) and on the day of my review, handed it in to the VP, who did my review. I found out during said review that we would be getting a raise of three percent. Now I’m not one to spit in the face of this sort of thing, however, it had been three years since my last raise and the only thing that didn’t go up during those three years was my salary. I hate to sound incredibly ungrateful, but when I got my next pay stub I had to pull out my previous one to see if I had actually gotten a raise. That’s not good. Again, I hate to sound like a spoiled brat but… did I mention our President and his Bentley? Yeah.

Okay, on to the nice part!

Fast forward a year. Last week, Monday to be exact, there was a staff meeting – attendance not mandatory (weird, yes). Well, I was off sick that day so I clearly didn’t go. When I got into work the next day, I opened an email outlining what the meeting had been about – it had been to recognize people who had been with the company for milestone years i.e. five, ten, fifteen etc., you get the idea. I’ve been there for six years so there was my name. I thought “Oh, that’s nice I guess,” I mean, I got my name on a list, in an email. Maybe I missed a pizza and wing lunch – our VP’s go-to for potluck lunches. I went on with my day.

The next day, while I was counting petty cash in my boss’s office, there was a knock on the door and on the other side was the VP, holding an orange gift bag, with my name on it. He came in, shook my hand and thanked me for all of my work over the years. I don’t like attention and was a bit embarrassed, but smiled like a goof anyway. I said, You’re Welcome, and thanked him for whatever was in the bag. Turns out it was a plaque, a $50.00 gift card and a handwritten card thanking me for my hard work. I’m not sure who signed it – I think it’s the President since I know the VP’s signature and it’s not his – but it doesn’t matter. That little token of appreciation lifted my spirits, it made me smile and it put me in a very good mood. It wasn’t a huge raise, it wasn’t an enormous and expensive gift; it was a Thank You, letting me know I was appreciated. To any managers/owners etc. out there reading this – your staff deserves to be shown respect and to be told that they are doing a good job – I mean, if they’re still working for you, they’re obviously doing a good job. They need to hear you say Thank You every once in a while. Trust me, it will make them smile.